Student Editorial Opposes Redesign of AAS Degree
Editorial from December 9, 2004 edition of the Times

Degree change wrong policy

As the Wisconsin Technical College System continues its work overhauling the Associate in Applied Science degree it runs the risk of diluting its primary focus on technical and vocational training.

The ability of technical college students to transfer credits to four-year baccalaureate programs is a nice benefit of taking classes through WCTS, for those students so inclined.

But given their relatively small numbers, about 15% of all students who enroll, it seems to us that credit transferability should not be pursued without carefully considering its impact on technical and vocational training curricula.

The WTCS president's baccalaureate rigor proposal, aimed at facilitating credit transfers between WTCS and University of Wisconsin system colleges, would require raising the level of all general education courses to the 200 level.

This could pose an unnecessary academic hardship on students who are here for the kind of hands-on vocational and technical training that has been the hallmark of this and other technical colleges for decades.

Why should someone pursuing a degree in , say, Culinary Arts, be required to successfully finish a university-level mathematics course, when a more basic math course would suffice?

MATC's surveys of its students and graduates indicate that about 80% of them attend MATC for employment reasons. Most students are here to prepare for their first career in a particular vocational field, to improve existing job skills, or to change careers.

These are the students whose needs should be considered first.

The pursuit of credit transferability also has an impact on capacity, as the college raises the bar on instructors, who will not be hired unless they hold at least a bachelor's degree, and perhaps a master's degree regardless of the on-the-job experience they have.

As a result, the college may in the future have to turn away students due to a lack of "qualified" instructors.

If that happens, it won't be because there aren't people out there with the right background and experience to be good instructors.

Rather it will be because otherwise-qualified instructor candidates don't have the formal education credentials that four-year colleges want to see to feel comfortable that transferred coursework was taught by someone who is academically qualified.

To the extent that credits earned toward MATC's two-year degrees can be transferred to a four-year college later on, that is a nice benefit.

But when the ability to transfer credits to a four-year colleges becomes an objective, it dilutes the very nature of technical and vocational training, making it less accessible to students who would otherwise choose it.

We at The Times feel that is the wrong direction for MATC to pursue -- wrong for students, wand wrong for the state of Wisconsin.